The present invention relates generally to the art of exhaust gas filtration and more particularly to the cleaning of exhaust gases of an engine or a chimney.
Pollution from the exhaust of vehicles or plant""s chimneys has caused serious air quality problems. Moreover, it is a well known fact that such pollution is a major factor of the xe2x80x9cgreenhousexe2x80x9d effect. It is also a well known fact that vehicle and plant""s chimneys exhaust are both major causes of poor air quality, especially in large and industrial countries.
Many of such countries have adopted environmental policies in order to improve the air quality. For instance, certain governments have strongly suggested the use of unleaded gasoline and firmly required the use of catalytic converters for vehicles. Furthermore, the governments have set up environmental protocols and restrictions to decrease air pollution emanating from plant""s chimneys. However, these policies, protocols and restrictions have not completely resolved the air pollution problem.
Known in the art are devices for filtering exhaust gas emanating from an engine or chimneys of industrial plants that have been also used in order to improve the air quality. Examples of such prior art devices are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,209,912; 6,074,620 and 6,185,934 B1. While these devices have resulted in the advancement within the present field, most of these prior art devices have not been successful or sufficiently efficient to filter the exhaust gases emanating from these sources.
Therefore, there is still a need for an improved device for filtering exhaust gases of an engine or a plant""s chimney.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved device for treating an exhaust gas.
In accordance with the invention, that object is achieved with a device for treating an exhaust gas, the device comprising:
a housing having a treatment chamber defined therein, an inlet port for receiving an exhaust gas to be treated, and an outlet port for releasing a treated gas, the gas being allowed to flow in the treatment chamber from the inlet port to the outlet port defining a flowing direction; and
treating means in said treatment chamber comprising layers of rocks of granite alternating with layers of rocks of charcoal, said layers extending substantially in perpendicular to the flowing direction of the gas.
The present invention is also directed to a combination of a first and a second device as defined above. The second device comprises regulating means for regulating the flow of gas in the housing of the second device and the combination further comprises connecting means for fluidly connecting the outlet port of the first device to the inlet port of the second device.
The present invention also proposes a method for treating an exhaust gas, comprising the steps of:
a) providing a device as defined above;
b) feeding the inlet port of the device with an exhaust gas;
c) treating the exhaust gas in the treatment chamber; and
d) releasing from the outlet port of the treatment chamber a treated gas.
A device for treating an exhaust gas according to the present invention proposes innovative features that makes it compact and easy-to manufacture and use. More importantly, the device of the present invention makes it possible to treat exhaust gas in a simple and efficient way. As a matter of fact, an important feature of the device resides in that layers of granite disposed between each layers of charcoal help reducing the temperature of the gas flowing in the treatment chamber. Such a reduction in the gas temperature will prevent the charcoal used to filter the exhaust gas from accelerated damage.